One key leadership lesson everyone can learn from the US Marines

Simon Sinek is the author of four books, including his latest, "Leaders Eat Last." Sinek sat down with Business Insider to discuss how the Marines embody leadership as a culture. Following is a transcript of the video.

It chokes me up every time when I hear stories of sacrifice and so I seek them out I seek out those people and I seek out those stories because it gives me fuel to keep doing what I do.

Well there’s many lessons we can learn from the Marine Corps.

The title of the book “Leaders Eat Last” came from a conversation I actually had with a Marine it was a three-star general who’s in charge of all Marine Corps training officer and enlisted and I asked him when I was talking to him a very simple question - what makes Marines so good at what they do? And he answered simply “officers eat last”

And if you visit any chow hall in any Marine base anywhere in the world what you will see when they eat at chow time is that all the Marines will line up in rank order. The most junior Marine will always eat first, the most senior Marine will always eat last. No order is given, there is no rule that says they will have to do this and nobody tells them they have to. It’s one of the funny ways that it manifests when we see their perspective on leadership how it shows up - it’s just one of the funny ways it shows up because they view leadership as a responsibility, not as a rank. It’s not about being in charge it’s about taking care of those in your charge. That’s what leadership really is and the Marines embody it as a culture and it’s sort of kind of amazing to see actually.